Nothing launched Ear (1) in India, which is the brand’s first product Globally. Nothing is a new company created by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, backed with investment from GV, Tony Fadell and content creator Casey Neistat. Nothing is aiming to design like ethos with the transparent stem in the form factor which peers at the internal components and also the transparent lid for the charging case.
At INR 5,999 the Ear (1) include active Noise cancellation, IPX4 Water resistance and wireless charging – All these features are available for INR 10,000 – INR 20,000 from the brand’s competitors.
Taking a close look on Ear (1) – you can see the voice / ANC microphones, touch sensors, and a dot — red (right) or white (left) — to indicate which side earbud it is, circuitry is visible, magnets inside the earbuds, and the pins where the earbuds connect to the charging case. Nothing is more focused on small details like Polished magnets, you will not find any ugly glue in the stems which are challenging.
The Ear (1) can be distinguished from far as it looks different from Apple Airpods Pro and other competitors. The concept of Ear (1) was a little different but the final product feels unique and good. The earbuds feel lightweight as each one of them weighs 4.7 grams and it fits properly in the ears and didn’t fall while running or eating, you will also get three silicone ear tips to opt for a better fit.
The charging case of Nothing completely different from other TWS as it comes with a transparent case and has rounded corners. It has spring tension which feels always satisfying while opening or closing the case. The charging case supports a USB-C port for wired charging and also has Qi wireless charging option. The dimple in the charging case helps to the earbuds intact with the magnetic hold, and it gives a fidget spinner feel. Nothing has come with a transparent case that comes with its own Pros and Cons. The Pro includes you can check both earbuds are present in the case, looks good design-wise, also indicates the battery health with Green or Red dot indicator and the Cons is that it collected scuff marks both on the bottom and top of the case.
Now talking about the most important thing is the sound, Ear (1) has 11.6mm drivers and they justify in the price range. It might not give the best of audio in all the TWS currently available in the market but still, satisfy in audio quality. It delivers good output for treble and high-end tracks which are acoustic-driven, for the bass lovers it might disappoint as they have less bass as it feels a little low on for high bass audio tracks. The Ear (1) presented well with good stereo separation and nothing sounding muddled.
Nothing’s mobile app is available for Android and iOS platforms with simple EQ adjustments – More Treble, More Bass and Voice. You can’t get complete manual control on sliders. If you switch between three modes Voice mode doesn’t feel much different from the treble. The earbuds support Bluetooth codecs AAC and SBC. Noise cancellation is passable with on max settings eliminate low-frequency audio and makes us forget that there are other people around us, so Noise isolation is fairly good coz of the good seal from the ear tips. Through the mobile app, you can find the earbud if lost or misplaced as the earbuds make noise. The Android connectivity gives you more access to check the battery level on each earbud and the charging case separately which is a great thing and also while pairing with Bluetooth for the first time it will recommend installing the app which is a good feature and not doing a manual search from the Google Play Store for the app.
Transparency mode doesn’t have a natural feel but still does a fair job. Nothing added a trick if you take one earbud out, the other will switch into transparency mode until both are back in your ears. And they’ve got auto-pause / resume when an earbud is removed, as well. The earbuds have three microphones and an algorithm to isolate the voice from the background. For the voice calls the person on the other side of the call had difficulty in hearing me as complaints mostly of muddled voice.
Nothing claims Ear (1) can last for four hours of continuous playback with ANC on, and the case has enough for 24 more hours, and without ANC 5.7 hours and 34 hours, respectively. The battery performance is up to the mark and no complaints about that. The earbuds have touch controls – tap twice to play/pause, three times to skip forward or go back to the previous song, hold to toggle NC mode, Swiping up and down to adjust the volume. All the touch controls worked reliably and feels intuitive.
Nothing has pushed a few firmware updates during our review period and it made all the bugs off the chart. For me, Nothing Ear (1) stands as one of the best TWS with the offerings to the competition under the 10K range in India and definite recommendation to check out.
